CH 102

Chapter 102 Kelou

After dark, they changed places.

Perhaps as a slight gesture of friendship, Qu Chenzhou’s eyes were covered, but his hands were not tied. Fang Wuyang carried him on his shoulders, and ran towards a direction he didn’t know.

He couldn’t figure out why everyone liked to carry him like a sack. His stomach felt uncomfortable, and it was hard to vomit on Fang Wuyang’s back. He could only concentrate on business to distract his focus.

The red and white Acacia seeds rolled out of the slave ring, slipped into the hand, and left his fingertips again. The sound of it landing was drowned in the sound of their footsteps in the dark night.

The resting place this time was an underground place without even a skylight. Dim oil lamps were embedded in the wall, and the shadows falling on the ground shook like ghosts.

Qu Chenzhou touched the mottled wall to recover his breath, walked around leisurely, and said with emotion: “It’s so depressing.”

It sounded like he was mocking the two people opposite, but no one had the heart to do verbal arguments with him. 

Not to mention that they were really desperate right now – when Qu Chenzhou was kidnapped, they never thought that they would have been exposed for a long time.

Jiang Xingzhi didn’t show his face at the lantern festival. Fang Wuyang had been drinking with Liu Zhongming a few days ago, and he was treated like a confidant, and he bluntly told him about his plan to seize the throne.

Now when he thought back, he thought it was Liu Zhongming who was stupid, but he didn’t expect that it was him who was really naive.

Liu Zhongming had been watching them secretly for a long time, but he waited calmly for them to become impatient.

“Qu Chenzhou, did you and Liu Zhongming collude in advance!”

Qu Chenzhou spread his hands innocently in response to this question.

“No,” Fang Wuyang answered Jiang Xingzhi for him: “When I went out to look just now, I ran into people who escaped. They said that Liu Zhongming was mad with anger, and told them not to worry about meeting you or me but to arrest him first and beat him to death first.”

Jiang Xingzhi blurted out his embarrassment and indignation in that moment, but he also knew that Qu Chenzhou was very important. If they had really colluded in advance, Liu Zhongming should have appeared earlier, and he would never allow them to take Qu Chenzhou away.

Thinking of Liu Zhongming’s furious appearance of digging up the ground to find someone, Qu Chenzhou couldn’t help shivering. If Fang Wuyang wasn’t trying to scare him on purpose, then after this incident, he might have another catastrophe.

He covered his eyes and wailed sincerely: “You two help me…”

Jiang Xingzhi glanced at him, annoyed in his heart, he didn’t know where to vent his temper, but he also understood Qu Chenzhou’s request was something only Fang Wuyang could do.

“Qu Chenzhou, you betrayed Liu Zhongming and wanted Fang Wuyang to find the antidote, don’t you think the odds of winning the gamble are a bit low?” 

“What can I do? Apart from you guys, no one else was thinking of kidnapping me right now.” Qu Chenzhou said helplessly: “Or, does Jiang Changshi think that I have a better chance of winning if I go to beg Shizi?”

Jiang Xingzhi and Fang Wuyang looked at each other.

Before catching him, they thought of all possible ways to subdue him, but they didn’t expect that after he was caught, he would take a completely different path than expected.

Qu Chenzhou turned the guest to the host and gave them only one choice, there was no other way to go.

The three of them were silent under the lamp for a long time before Fang Wuyang seemed to have made up his mind: “Qu Chenzhou, if I get the antidote for you, will you be willing to assist Jingchen?” 

“I swear,” Qu Chenzhou also said seriously answered him: “If you get the antidote for Shuo Ye for me, I will treat His Highness as master, and I will do my best to assist you.” 

“Where does Zhongming put the antidote?”

“I don’t know, His Highness gives me the antidote on time every month, but I don’t know ether the recipe is hidden.” Qu Chenzhou thought about it, and felt that it would be bad to talk too much, so he just said vaguely: “Shizi knows.” 

“I’ll look for it.” Fang Wuyang got up and left. He was no stranger to Liu Zhongming’s inner courtyard, and his things were hidden in those places.

“Wait,” Jiang Xingzhi stopped him, then turned to look at Qu Chenzhou: “Since you can predict the future, you can give him a divination and see what happens when he goes here.” 

Qu Chenzhou glanced at Fang Wuyang: “I’m sorry, I’ve already done divination for him the first time I saw him, and I can’t do it for the second time in such a short period of time.”

Before anyone could ask a question, he confessed: “The pond opens Bing Dilian, then would one see the circle at the beginning of the month “

Jiang Xingzhi was puzzled, but Fang Wuyang suddenly turned around and scolded: “Don’t talk nonsense!”

“Oh…” If it was just his own guess before, now that Fang Wuyang reacted so violently, Qu Chenzhou felt even more sure.

Anyway, now that he was the treasure of the other party, he sneered: “I haven’t thought about what Bing Dilian meant before, but now I understand. If they were from the same branch, they come from the same mother.” 

“I think… Young Warrior Fang has a real brother? Who is this brother…”

A hand grabbed his neck and pressed him against the wall.

“Talking nonsense again,” Fang Wuyang clenched his fingers, with a ferocious expression on his face, “I’ll crush your neck!”

Until the sound of footsteps above his head were far away after a long time, Qu Chenzhou was still coughing non-stop. He couldn’t help but sigh and think that Liu Zhongming was patient enough with him after all, if it was replaced with Fang Wuyang, he would have been strangled to death long ago.

“Jiang Changshi…can you, cough cough, give me a glass of water?”

Jiang Xingzhi had been sitting in a daze since Fang Wuyang left, and then he seemed to be awakened by these words, and blurted out: “Impossible!”

Ever since he got acquainted with Fang Wuyang by chance, for a long time, he had doubted why the other party, a person from Jiang Hu who was not involved in court affairs, would be willing to help an unknown and silent prince.

In the subsequent cooperation, he gradually let go of his guard, but he never got an answer to this doubt.

But just now, although neither Fang Wuyang nor Qu Chenzhou mentioned that name, it made him enlightened, but this knot was still unbelievable.

If Qu Chenzhou’s divination was correct, then Fang Wuyang’s brother is…

“Impossible.” He muttered again, but found that no amount of denials could fool him.

The Jingchen he met in Xiyan back then was so distraught, and after so many years, he couldn’t find out the reason. Could it be that it was due to Fang Wuyang?

Compared to his shock, Qu Chenzhou was much calmer. He had seen all kinds of turmoil in his previous life, and now even if Fang Wuyang’s brother was the current emperor, he could still eat two bowls of rice calmly.

“Jiang Changshi,” he reminded with some embarrassment: “Should we…should we have dinner?”

Jiang Xingzhi looked at him with complicated eyes, swallowed his suffocated breath back into his stomach, and asked someone to prepare dinner.

After the food was served, Jiang Xingzhi lifted his chopsticks but couldn’t eat. He always thought he was calm enough, but he paled in comparison to this young man who was a head shorter than himself.

“Don’t think you are not involved, there are only two days left before Shuo Ye!”

Qu Chenzhou held the tips of his chopsticks in his mouth, frowned slightly, and after holding back for a long time, he said, “Can you stop making it spicy…”

Jiang Xingzhi stared. Looking at him, he felt that he needed to re-examine Liu Shizi in the future. How did he teach such a thing?

The change of the sun cannot be seen underground, so Qu Chenzhou can only calculate the time by relying on the three meals a day.

Jiang Xingzhi went up for longer and longer periods, and when he came down, he couldn’t hide his anxiety.

Although he thought that with Fang Wuyang’s skills, if he encountered something wrong, he won’t be caught by Liu Zhongming, but now days were like years. Fang Wuyang not coming back for a while, he can’t be rest assured for a while.

Those who went out came back and said that the people in the Beiya stepped up their patrols in the city, saying they were arresting bandits, but they could only curse Liu Zhongming for his personal use of public management in their hearts.

Seeing the last twilight in the sky being swallowed up, he asked someone to open the stone door, and walked back underground along the narrow stone steps.

Qu Chenzhou was still sitting at the table, rubbing one hand on the lapel in front of his chest, and licking his dry lips with the tip of his tongue, losing his calmness before.

Seeing Jiang Xingzhi coming down, he asked in a hoarse voice, “How much longer?”

“One hour.”

Jiang Xingzhi put the kelou* in his hand on the table, the arrow was shaking on the undulating water, only two fingers away from the eleventh hour.

* ancient clock

Qu Chenzhou’s face turned pale, staring at the wobbling arrow. His finger rubbing movements also became frequent. The so-called ignorant people are fearless, others were fine,  but he knew the power of Shuo Ye best.

Although he had made up his mind that he would go through this sooner or later the moment he swallowed Shuo Ye, seeing the arrow floating, it was as if watching a raised butcher knife slowly fall, cutting the flesh with a blunt knife, it was inevitable that he was full of fear.

“Do you regret it?” Jiang Xingzhi asked him.

“A little bit,” someone spoke, so that his tension can be slightly relieved: “What about Jiang Changshi, do you regret it?”

Jiang Xingzhi replied coldly: “Regret, if I knew Liu Zhongming would do things so absolutely, I would not have any ideas on you. But I still can’t figure out the ins and outs of the Danlang incident, what did you do in the middle?” 

“No comment,” Qu Chenzhou glanced at the kelou again, and asked : “My question just now was to understand if Jiang Changshi had sacrificed a lot for His Highness, and if you regretted it?”

Jiang Xingzhi was silent for a long time, then glanced at him coldly: “People like you won’t understand “

Qu Chenzhou looked back: “Jiang Changshi wants me to serve His Highness, and also wants me to be loyal. Isn’t the requirement too high?” 

Jiang Xingzhi didn’t speak with him, he turned his face away, then heard his questioning with great interest.

“Jiang Changshi, are you pleased with His Highness?”

Jiang Xingzhi’s mind tightened, and he calmly reprimanded, “Shut up!”

“I’m bored now, and I’m a little nervous, so I don’t really want to shut up,” Qu Chenzhou rested his chin and inquired curiously: “Was there ever sexual intercourse?” 

“Qu Chenzhou!” Jiang Xingzhi shot up and angrily reprimanded, “Watch your mouth or I’ll cut your tongue off!”

Seeing that Jiang Xingzhi’s face was flushed with anger, he couldn’t help but smile: “It seems that there is. Jiang Changshi doesn’t need to be ashamed, you have always been calm, yet you reacted fiercely on this issue alone, isn’t that just revealing yourself. “

“No!” Jiang Xingzhi said with hatred: “His Highness is pure, if you talk nonsense again, don’t blame me for being rude to you!”

Qu Chenzhou closed his mouth, but put his two index fingers together to play. Sometimes, the left pushed down the right side, and after a while the right side pushed down the left side, entangled with each other, inseparable.

Jiang Xingzhi saw it from the corner of his eye, and slapped the table again.

Qu Chenzhou concentrated on looking at the kelou, this time he stopped touching the front of his lapel and alternately touched the slave ring on his wrist.

It was a pair that Liu Zhongming had made for him not long ago. Thin silver was used instead of the thick red copper. At first glance, it seemed to be just a pair of wrist guards.

The arrow lowered little by little, and he suddenly raised his eyes to look at Jiang Xingzhi, his eyes were like knives.